Spirits are low after the Doha trade talks in Geneva collapsed yesterday following an intense nine days of negotiations and are high unlikely to be resumed before January 2009 or later.
Food industry voices are joining those of politicians in the GM debate, hailing the controversial technology as the answer to the food supply crisis. But the hearts and minds of consumers must still be won.
Netherlands-based dairy rivals, Friesland Foods and Campina, have
yesterday reached an agreement to combine their operations in a bid
to maximize returns from their milk supply.
Recent amendments to Germany's biotech laws will allow the
country's food processors to make use of a "without biotech" label
on their products, despite some concerns that such claims are
misleading, says a new...
Friesland Foods this week announced plans to scale down
its production facilities in the Netherlands in a bid to brace
itself for wide scale changes within the EU's dairy market.
Two weeks ago world leaders extended the deadline on the
beleaguered Doha trade round to the end of this year. Exhortations
not to let the opportunity pass have ensued, but big barriers must
still be overcome before a positive conclusion...
The suspended WTO farm talks featured in the organisation's
agriculture committee's meeting yesterday, with members' failure to
supply up-to-date information a source of frustration.
Ingredients giant Tate & Lyle is considering the sale of its
Food & Industrial Ingredients, Europe (TALFIIE) division, in a
move designed to sharpen its focus on value added ingredients, the
firm announced yesterday.
The short sighted failure of greedy WTO trading partners to achieve
any sort of meaningful agreement on global agricultural tariffs is
bad for Europe's food industry.
Failure to reach an agreement on global trade has upset dairy
industry officials from the EU and beyond, creating more
uncertainty about the future of the sector.
It is unrealistic to expect the European Union to make more big
concessions at the upcoming World Trade Organisation talks, argues
the European Dairy Association against critics of Europe's stance.
In a bid to meet World Trade Organisation demands, the European
Commission plans to make it easier for non-EU companies to gain
geographical indications (GI) protection for speciality brand
names.
The amount of fake food and drinks entering the EU grew by 200 per
cent last year, with the higher quality of counterfeits making
detection more difficult, the bloc's administrative arm said this
week.
A firm commitment from the US to cut domestic farm subsidies by 60
percent within a five-year timeframe could revitalize WTO
negotiations and benefit US food makers, according to the
International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).
Breakthrough talks at the weekend on world trade will have received
a reticent welcome from a European food industry likely to see the
phasing out of payouts to export food products.
The trade case filed by a leading North American producer of
saccharin advanced another step this week with a preliminary
determination by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that
saccharin imports from the People's Republic...
